


Bully

by phoenixnz



Series: The Chronicles of Martha and Jonathan [16]
Category: Smallville
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 06:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10871025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixnz/pseuds/phoenixnz
Summary: There's an incident at Clark's school that has Jonathan worried





	Bully

**Author's Note:**

> From Season One: Zero - A conversation between Chloe, Pete and Clark

The phone was ringing, the sound reverberating off the walls of the narrow hallway as Jonathan stepped inside. 

“Martha?” he called out, then remembered she’d gone to a meeting for the bake sale being held that weekend. She’d volunteered to man a stall as well as bake a few of her famous muffins. He picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Mr Kent?”

He frowned.

“Yes, who is this?”

“This is Mrs Hennessey. I’m the principal at Smallville Elementary.”

“Oh,” he said, the name jogging his memory. He hadn’t really liked the woman much when they’d met her, just before they’d enrolled Clark in school. He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was far too early for Clark to be out of school and there were no parent-teacher meetings scheduled.

“I was wondering if you and your wife could come down to the school,” the woman said.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“I’d rather not discuss that over the phone.”

That didn’t sound good, he thought as he hung up. The screen door squeaked and he looked up. Martha frowned at him, seeing the phone in his hand.

“Who was on the phone?”

“Clark’s principal.”

Martha immediately looked worried. “Did she say …”

“She wants us to come down to the school. Soon as we can.” He shook his head. “I’m sure it’s nothing, sweetheart.”

She still looked worried. Jonathan could understand that. Given Clark’s differences, no matter how much they told him to keep it to himself, Jonathan often wondered if his son was just too young to realise the repercussions if someone were to discover what he could do.

The discovery that he could run faster than any normal adult male had been alarming to say the least. Not because they were afraid of his ability, but because he could so easily have gotten lost. Jonathan still had nightmares about searching Palmer Woods for days only to come across his son’s still body. He thanked God that had never happened, but Clark had been terrified. 

Jonathan recalled when he’d found Clark that he’d wrapped his arms around him and told him never to do that again. He had tried to keep from scaring his son, but the truth was, he’d been terrified himself, wondering what he was going to find.

The last thing he’d wanted was to give his little boy a complex about his strange abilities, but he had no idea how he was supposed to handle this. The strength was one thing, but he had hoped he’d managed to teach Clark how to hide that. The speed was something else. He knew he would have to keep his son out of school sports, but since physical education was a big part of his school life, Jonathan just didn’t know how he was going to do that.

He still tried to think of possible scenarios as he drove the truck to the school. Martha was silent on the bench seat beside him, probably trying to guess what the meeting was about as much as he was.

When they stepped into the school’s administration block, they saw Clark sitting with Pete on chairs outside the principal’s office. The nurse’s office was open across from them and what looked like a fourth grader was being treated by the nurse. He had a cut lip and she was holding a cloth to his face. She looked up and frowned at them but said nothing.

Jonathan was about to ask his son what was going on when the principal’s door opened.

“Mr and Mrs Kent, please come in.”

Jonathan was surprised to see Abby and Bill Ross in the office. Abby was a lawyer who seemed to be doing quite well for herself. 

“Mrs Hennessey …”

“Please sit down,” the woman responded. “I’m very sorry to have had to call you all here, but this is a very serious matter.”

Jonathan glanced at Bill, then frowned at the principal.

“What is it?”

“Clark has been fighting.”

“Fighting?” Abby asked.

“I’m afraid so. All I can get out of the boys is that an older boy was bullying Peter and using, well, dare I say it, racist remarks.”

Jonathan listened in amazement. The older boy had begun pushing Pete around on the playground and Clark had jumped to his defence. In retaliation, the boy had begun shoving Clark, who had shoved back. Somehow, the boy had ended up falling through a door, breaking both the door and the hinges. 

Martha and Abby stared at each other, the shock clear on their faces.

“How did that happen?”

The principal shrugged. “I have no idea. The janitor thinks perhaps it’s termites, but it doesn’t explain the broken hinges.”

“Well, perhaps that’s just metal fatigue,” Jonathan replied, mentally crossing his fingers. 

“I suppose.”

“You’re not punishing Clark, are you?” he asked.

She looked at him. “Well, this is a very serious matter, as I said. I can’t just let Clark …”

“Let him what? Go unpunished? He was standing up for his friend. From what I understand from my sons, this boy has been bullying other children at the school and you’ve allowed him to get away with it. Frankly, Mrs Hennessey, I’m appalled that you have allowed this behaviour to continue right under your nose. Tell me, why are his parents not here?”

“Mrs Ross …”

“You are very lucky that my son has not been injured by this boy, or else this school would be facing a lawsuit,” Abby said sternly. Bill was wisely staying silent, allowing his wife to handle the situation.

The principal spluttered, trying to say that it was Clark who was in the wrong.

“Well, I can’t see how on Earth you would think Clark would be responsible for what happened to your door,” Martha replied in a tone similar to Abby’s. She was acting every inch the lawyer her father had once tried to force her to be. “It seems clear to me the boy just slipped and fell. Something I have no doubt would never have happened if he hadn’t been bullying Pete.”

The other woman bit her lip, clearly seeing she was outnumbered. 

“Yes, of course,” she replied. “This was just an unfortunate … accident.”

Jonathan couldn’t help thinking as they walked away from the school with Clark that they had dodged a bullet on this one. The worst part was, if Clark’s abilities kept on growing, they might be dodging a few more in years to come. 

Still, there was no point worrying over it right now. They would just have to cross that bridge when they came to it.


End file.
